Saturday, March 18, 2017

Height

Starting Statistics

Today's Statistics

Date - March 17, 2017

Weight - 159 Pounds

Body Fat % - 17.8%

Lean Mass - 128.9 Pounds

Fat Mass - 28.1 Pounds

What Happened These Past 2 Weeks

It's been about 2 weeks since I started the keto diet and I'm noticeably thinner than I was before. I've already gotten compliments on how much thinner I look! Which is surprising for me since normally when I change any fitness or diet regimen that I'm on no one notices.

I had been doing the Candito Linear Programming (link is PDF) by Jonnie Candito for about 3 months prior to the diet. During that time I was using a slow carb diet and was steadily gaining mass. I wasn't tracking my nutrition very well but I had been getting much fitter.

I switch to keto to see if I can "clean bulk" as some would call it. I found myself actually losing both muscle and fat mass. I can lift heavier than I was lifting before, but I find it much more difficult to do heavy lifts.

I suspect that I'm not eating enough protein. Currently I eat 1.5 Grams per KG of lean mass. It comes out to around 87 to 94 grams of protein per day. On work out days I'll start eating 2 Grams of protein per pound of body weight while keeping the same proportion of fats. 70% fat to 25% protein and 5% carbs. Hopefully I'll see some fat loss and lean mass gains.

My Ketone Levels After Having a Beer

After I had the beer in the afternoon I had walked around Pasadena on the date for about 1.5 hours. It took another hour to get back home and I ended up getting home around 4. So 2 and a half hours after I finished the beer I measured my ketone levels.

My ketone levels were at 1 mmol/L which I didn't expect. I thought that I would be out of ketosis but I guess the walking had put either put me back in.

My Ketone Levels After Having Several Beers

At the end of the night I had gone to a friends house for some blind beer tasting. The amount of alcohol ended up being approximately 3 beers worth in alcohol. I didn't feel very drunk but I noticed that I was more inebriated than I would be if I had been on a more normal diet.

My ketone levels after measuring when I got back home was 0.4 mmol/L. I was actually surprised by this. I could still feel the alcohol in my body and wasn't sure if this was a false reading or not.

If the reading wasn't false I would only be 0.1 mmol/L away from being in a light ketosis.

What May Have Affected My Ketone Levels and Readings

Ketone readings register acetone (which is a product of processing alcohol) as ketones and could have made it seem like I was producing more ketones. This could explain why my ketone levels were higher than I thought they may be.

This could also be why some people think that having a shot of vodka or whiskey is good for you and can put you further into ketosis.

While my brunch was french toast, my dinner was basically all meat. The Chinese hot pot place that I go to has an all you can eat option and normally we get as much meat as possible to make it worth it for us. Suffice it to say we chose the fattiest possible meat options.

I'm going to continue with the diet this week and see what my readings and weight is at the end of the week.

Thursday, March 9, 2017

The biggest question I had before starting this diet was whether or not I would lose strength and muscle mass.

Yesterday I did my first work out after I started the diet. Going in to the workout I assumed that I would be significantly weaker as a result of being in ketosis. The results were a bit surprising to me.

I wasn't weaker at first. In fact I felt a little stronger in the beginning of the work out. As the workout went on I started getting much more tired than when I was eating slow carbs.

Complex Carbs Helped Me Sustain During Workouts

I follow the Candito Linear Programming by Jonnie Candito. It's an amazing program, especially for beginners. I'm just starting my third month as I begin the keto diet and have already seen some amazing results.

Before the Candito Linear I was doing SL5x5 for about a year. Out of the two I would recommend the Candito program if you're able to work out 4 days a week. If you're only able to work out 3 days a week do SL5x5. Both are good for beginners and can be continued as you build more and more strength.

I've been eating a slow carb diet that involved eating a balance of complex carbohydrates, proteins, and vegetables. This diet really allowed me to push through workouts. Workouts were hard but I was able to get through them without much complaining.

On keto the first workout was a little different. I had a little more strength in the beginning of the work out but I started becoming more and more tired as the work out progressed.

Despite my being tired, I was able to push through the workout in the same amount of time as all my other work outs. I was also able to at least increase the weight in most of my lifts. If I couldn't increase the weight I was able to keep it the same or reach the same reps.

Overall, my first work out on keto felt good. Even after the keto fast I did, I felt like I didn't lose any strength.

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Ketosis is the metabolic state of using ketones instead of glucose for energy. It's a natural state of metabolism when you're body isn't running on carbohydrates. Your body essentially begins using fats, and can more easily burn your fat stores.

One of the major downsides of the ketogenic diet is trying to even get into burning fat for fuel instead of glucose. During that time people often have what is known as the "keto flu". It's a result of withdrawal from glucose essentially and can last days or weeks. That's where the keto fast comes in. It's purpose is to get into ketosis as fast as possible.

Preparing for the Fast

Fasting is one of those words that instantly makes me cringe. When I hear that my friends or family are fasting, my stomach twists around in my body. It squeezes into itself almost as if I'm experiencing the hunger pangs they are. Suffice it to say that I wasn't very excited to do any sort of fasting.

When I read that Tim Ferriss does a 3 day fast as a sort of primer to begin the keto diet I was intrigued. A friend had told me he had done a 2 day version and ended up so far into ketosis that he stopped. He was scared that he would lost too much fat too quickly. That's not something that I could quite comprehend when he said it. How could you lose too much fat?

The next time I saw him he looked almost gaunt. He was a skinny guy but I had not expected that he would lose this much weight. Just a few weeks ago he had just been normal, skinny, Richard to me. I asked him how his fasting went and he said it was great! It was easy, and he had lost a ton of weight. Not that he needed to lose any.

I decided to do it myself. I ordered the Abbott Precision Xtra to take reading of my blood ketone levels. I also ordered Brain Octane and KetoCaNa since Tim Ferriss had mentioned that's what he had used. I found later that the two supplements were not only recommended but a necessity. The test strips that I ordered to measure ketone levels hadn't shipped on time and the battery was drained, they weren't going to arrive until the week after the fast. I didn't have much of a choice though. I couldn't see another chance for me to fast in the coming months so I went through with it 2 weeks after Richard told me about it.

Fasting to Get Into Ketosis

I started my fast on a Friday night after a good work out. I worked out my upper body that day and went to have a nice low carb dinner with my cousin. Once I finished my meal I considered the fast to have begun. The rest of the night was easy. It was like any other Friday night except I hadn't come home drunk after dinner.

Saturday I geared up for a 4 hour walk. Tim recommends that you walk for 3 to 4 hours as soon as you wake up and have some caffeine and the two supplements. I mixed the KetoCaNa in some water, blended the Brain Octane in my coffee, grabbed a small packet of salt and went off. I decided that my Nike Running shoes would be appropriate. That was something I would regret later. If you do this, I suggest you use shoes built for walking, not running.

The walk was great but the shoes took a toll on my back. I started having lower back pain as I was recovering. My legs had been killing my so I must have shifted my weight onto the lower part of my spine. I didn't care at that point, I was just happy to be home.

After the walk I felt fine. Exhausted but in good spirits. When I started to become hungry I took some more of the exogenous ketone supplements to curb my appetite. It worked until later that night. I broke down and convinced myself that having a few nuts couldn't hurt. The hunger was keeping me up, if I didn't eat I wouldn't be able to sleep. I had some nuts and fell asleep almost immediately. Best of all I slept like a baby.

The next day I woke up bright and early but I was trying to sleep in as late as possible. I'm not a morning person at all, I love sleeping late. This time I felt refreshed upon waking, which I found odd. The rest of the day I was in a haze but I was still productive. As long as I was productive I wouldn't be nearly as hungry. I got an immense amount of things done that Sunday, all while fasting. That night I broke my fast with a nice fat juicy steak that I had been craving. I thought it was fitting to have a couple beers as well.

Since then I've switched to a fully keto diet. So far so good. Let's hope it stays this way.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Why I've Started the Keto Diet

I've been struggling with reducing my body fat for the past couple years. I've counted calories, macro nutrients, cut out simple carbs, attempted to become vegetarian. They all worked to some extent but I found myself binge eating at the end of the week and not really making progress and feeling really bad.

Now I know people preach about anti-dieting. Working out hard enough to be able to eat anything you want. Like most people I simply don't have that kind of time. Athletes and gym rats can do it all they want. Normal people, like me, don't have the entire day to spend at the gym. What you eat is going to make a huge difference.

Diets are Hard

Diet is a four letter word these days. People don't like the fact that other people are dieting. I can see why. Most of the people you know that are on diets are insanely fit, or morbidly obese. People hate hearing that these fit people are on a diet. "Why does he even need to diet? He's so fit!" or "He's going to fall off the wagon again."

There's a lot of negativity when it comes to dieting, but dieting isn't a bad thing. It's a lot like communism. People think it's bad because of propaganda, but the concept of communism itself isn't bad. Diets get a bad reputation because they are hard to do.

Why Keto?

Like most other people I've been on many different diets. Many of them ended up making me weaker and hungrier than ever. Some made me stronger but I ended up gaining fat instead of losing it. I've experimented with my diet more than anyone I know. It's not saying much though since I'm the only one I know that experiments with my diet.

I've come to understand a few things. I hate being hungry, and I hate being unproductive.

Most of you that read this will probably already know what ketogenic diets are. I won't bore you but here's the basics for those of you that don't know.

The calories in the diet should come mostly from fat. At least 60% and upwards to 80% should be fats. 5% or less should be carbohydrates. In other words you won't be eating carbs.

The idea is that you get your brain running on ketones which are produced when you starve yourself of glucose and have an abundance of fats in your system. I don't know the complete science behind it, but I know enough to risk trying the diet at least.

So what is this blog about exactly?

This blog is a journal of sorts for me to log the effects of the ketogenic diet on my body and mind. So far I've been on the diet for 4 days and I've feeling better than ever. We'll see what longer terms do to me though.